CIA Ramps Up Role in Iraq

As al Qaeda Fighters Cross Over From Syria, Agency Fills Void Left by U.S. Military

By

Adam Entous,

Julian E. Barnes and

Siobhan Gorman

March 11, 2013 10:30 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency is ramping up support to elite Iraqi antiterrorism units to better fight al Qaeda affiliates, amid alarm in Washington about spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria, according to U.S. officials.

The stepped-up mission expands a covert U.S. presence on the edges of the two-year-old Syrian conflict, at a time of American concerns about the growing power of extremists in the Syrian...